at other chap, dodging about! 'E's got 'is 'ead
'urt already, and there's something wrong with his leg. And burns.
Golly! it isn't three weeks ago I first set eyes on 'im, and then 'e was
smart and set up--'ands full of 'air-brushes and things, and swearin' at
me. A regular gentleman! Now 'e's 'arfway to a wild man. What am I to do
with 'im? What the 'ell am I to do with 'im? I can't leave 'im 'ave that
flying-machine; that's a bit too good, and if I don't kill 'im, 'e'll
jest 'ang about this island and starve....

"'E's got a sword, of course"....

He resumed his philosophising after he had lit a cigarette.

"War's a silly gaim, Kitty. It's a silly gaim! We common people--we were
fools. We thought those big people knew what they were up to--and they
didn't. Look at that chap! 'E 'ad all Germany be'ind 'im, and what 'as
'e made of it? Smeshin' and blunderin' and destroyin', and there 'e 'is!
Jest a mess of blood and boots and things! Jest an 'orrid splash! Prince
Karl Albert! And all the men 'e led and the ships 'e 'ad, the airships,
and the dragon-fliers--all scattered like a paper-chase between this
'ole and Germany. And fightin' going on and burnin' and killin' that 'e
started, war without end all over the world!

"I suppose I shall 'ave to kill that other chap. I suppose I must. But
it ain't at all the sort of job I fancy, Kitty!"

For a time he hunted about the island amidst the uproar of the
waterfall, looking for the wounded officer, and at last he started him
out of some bushes near the head of Biddle Stairs. But as he saw the
bent and bandaged figure in limping flight before him, he found his
Cockney softness too much for him again; he could neither shoot nor
pursue. "I carn't," he said, "that's flat. I 'aven't the guts for it!
'E'll 'ave to go."

He turned his steps towards the flying-machine....

He never saw the bird-faced officer again, nor any further evidence of
his presence. Towards evening he grew fearful of ambushes and hunted
vigorously for an hour or so, but in vain. He slept in a good defensible
position at the extremity of the rocky point that runs out to the
Canadian Fall, and in the night he woke in panic terror and fired his
gun. But it was nothing. He slept no more that night. In the morning he
became curiously concerned for the vanished man, and hunted for him as
one might for an erring brother.

"If I knew some German," he said, "I'd 'oller. It's jest not knowing
German does it. You